wayward's blog

Patrick Thompson was just acquitted.  It didn't sound like the state's case was very strong, so I think this is the right verdict.  There's a story in the News-Gazette at http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2008/05/16/jury_acquits_thompson_of_sexual_abuse_after_an_hour .  Apparently, it didn't take the jury long to decide.

According to the News-Gazette, Brian Chesley received conditional discharge and 100 hours of community service.

A Rantoul teen convicted of resisting and obstructing police in Douglass Park in north Champaign more than a year ago has been sentenced to a year of conditional discharge and 100 hours of public service.

The sentence for Brian Chesley, 19, who also lives part time with a grandmother in Urbana, means he will have a misdemeanor conviction on his record but will not have to report to a probation officer for monitoring. It was the least restrictive sentence that Champaign County Judge John Kennedy could have imposed for the crimes.

What's interesting is that the Very Green candidate for CB 9 started out with a couple of felony charges and ended up with first offender's probation, meaning that he'll have no record if he successfully completes it.  Chesley started out with an offer of diversion and ended up with a couple of misdemeanor convictions.  I wonder if this has anything to do with the former getting Diana Lenik as a defense attorney and the latter getting Kirchner and Wyman?

According to the Southern Illinoisan, two SIU professors won't be punished for finishing the state ethics test too quickly.

Two Southern Illinois University math professors threatened with firings because they took the state ethics exam too fast will keep their jobs, their lawyer said Tuesday.

Professors Walter Wallis and Marvin Zeman sued the state after being threatened with discipline including firing because the state accused them of breezing through their ethics test too quickly to have fully understood the material.

Their lawyer, Ralph Lowenstein, said Tuesday Wallis and Zeman reached a legal settlement with the state in which both get to keep their jobs and won't face any discipline. The settlement also acknowledges the two passed the test.

''Basically, I would consider it a complete capitulation on their part,'' Lowenstein said of the state.

Via the N-G (http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2008/04/17/white_women_lead_jury_makeup)

For the third year in a row, more white women than any other demographic group sat in judgment of defendants in Champaign County court cases.

The over-representation of white women and the non-existence of Asian males in the jury pool were among the findings of the fourth annual report of the Champaign County Courtwatching Project.

I'd consider myself moderately pro-choice, but this nauseates me.  http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24513

Art major Aliza Shvarts '08 wants to make a statement.

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate, inciting, for instance, outcry at a forum for fellow senior art majors held last week. And when told about Shvarts' project, students on both ends of the abortion debate have expressed shock . saying the project does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.

But Shvarts insists her concept was not designed for "shock value."

"I hope it inspires some sort of discourse," Shvarts said. "Sure, some people will be upset with the message and will not agree with it, but it's not the intention of the piece to scandalize anyone."

The "fabricators," or donors, of the sperm were not paid for their services, but Shvarts required them to periodically take tests for sexually transmitted diseases. She said she was not concerned about any medical effects the forced miscarriages may have had on her body. The abortifacient drugs she took were legal and herbal, she said, and she did not feel the need to consult a doctor about her repeated miscarriages.

Shvarts declined to specify the number of sperm donors she used, as well as the number of times she inseminated herself.

Brian Chesley was found guilty this afternoon on both counts.

There's a blog post from last year at http://www.illinipundit.com/2007/03/31/crash%2C-champaign-style .  Kirchner and Wyman found it and decided to subpoena me, so I got served around 9 PM the night before I was supposed to testify.  This didn't make much sense to me, and I pointed out that I hadn't even seen anything but the aftermath and most of the post was hearsay.  But I had to come anyhow, and so did Gina Jackson and Mike LaDue, who hadn't seen any more than I did.

It seemed odd that there was no witness preparation - no interview, no discussion of what people were supposed to do in court, or anything.  Gina and Mike said that there hadn't been any preparation with them either.  While we were waiting out in the hall, we met another local attorney who had a pretty good reputation, and I described the situation to him and asked if this how defense lawyers normally operated.  He said it would probably be best not to answer that question.

The second day we were there (the third for Mike LaDue), Wyman told us that they didn't actually need our testimony and we were released from our subpoenas.  This didn't seem too professional, and I was curious whether they were doing any better inside the courtroom.  I noticed that the defendant was wearing a T-shirt, baggy pants, and a hooded sweatshirt, and wondered whether they'd gotten around to discussing issues like courtroom attire with him.  Someone told me that some of the defense witnesses were contradicting each other as well as the police, and Kirchner didn't seem too happy about that.

After Gina Jackson was released as a defense witness without testifying, the state called her.  I talked to another attorney I knew that evening about the trial, and he explained some things to me.  He said that jurors are sometimes impressed by sheer numbers of witnesses, so Kirchner and Wyman might have some testify and let the jurors believe that other witnesses who are not called would have said the same thing.  So if that was the case, it wouldn't have mattered whether I'd actually seen anything - I would have just been subpoenaed to push up the number of defense witnesses.

What really bothered me about the whole case was that it seemed like the defendant might just be a pawn.  Some other people I talked with expressed similar concerns.  Someone told me that Kirchner was one of the people who'd urged the defendant to turn down the state's diversion offer.  So the kid now has a misdemeanor conviction instead of a clean record.

There's an interesting article in the Trib about Blago defending a pardon for Chandra Gill.  Gill is currently an administrator for the Loop Lab School, which had rented space in the Pilgrim Baptist Church before it was destroyed by fire.  Gill was convicted in 2002 of assaulting off-duty Urbana officer Al Johnston.  She petitioned in 2006 for a pardon, and Blago granted it in 2007.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration presented a confusing picture Wednesday of what his office knew about a woman who received a criminal pardon from the governor in 2007, even as her school received a $1 million state grant to reopen after being burned out of the Pilgrim Baptist Church.

Blagojevich ducked out of a news conference Wednesday morning without answering questions about why he granted the pardon to Chandra N. Gill, who at the time was working with state officials to obtain the grant for the Loop Lab School. The school had rented space at the church until it was gutted in a 2006 fire.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-mistaken_grant_webmar06,1,994978.story

Here are some related stories:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-moneymistake-pard,0,570522.story

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-pilgrim-baptistmar05,0,6636685.story

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-pilgrim-baptist.04mar04,0,7744993.story

 Update: There's a related article in the News-Gazette at http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2008/03/13/exofficer_upset_by_pardon .  Another officer involved wasn't too pleased when she heard about the pardon, and she also questioned the $1 million being given to the Loop Lab School.

From Tom Kacich's column in yesterday's N-G:

Feuding Democrats

One of the sidelights of the recent primary election was the continuing feud among Champaign County Democrats.  It even came down to one faction of the local Dems trying to boot a member of the other group -- county board member Brendan McGinty -- off the ballot.

Attorney Ruth Wyman led a legal effort to have McGinty thrown off the primary ballot (he wasn't) because his five sheets of nominating petitions were not numbered in order.

"I think it's extremely important not only to maintain the integrity of the electoral process, but also to maintain appearance of that process," Wyman said in a Dec. 1 News-Gazette story.

It turns out, though, that McGinty wasn't the only Democrat to turn in what Wyman would consider flawed petitions.  Two other county board candidates submitted multiple pages of petitions that were not numbered at all.  Incumbent board member Michael Richards' four pages of petitions weren't numbered, nor were challenger Pattsi Petrie's six pages.

Wyman was out of town and unavailable for comment.  When he was informed, McGinty just laughed and said, "There are a lot of things I could say, but I won't."

It looks like Jon White pleaded guilty in Champaign County and is expected to plead guilty in McLean County as well.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2008/02/20/white_pleads_guilty_to_sexual_abuse_charges

Obama's projected to win Washington and Nebraska in the Dem primary, and he's ahead in LA (with 30% of the votes in).  McCain apparently has the GOP nomination sewn up, but I wonder if the Dems will end up with a brokered convention?

This month, I got two letters asking me to serve as an election judge.  However, this would involve a 13-14 hour day and I couldn't leave my puppy alone for that long.  Doggie daycare also wouldn't be an option.  When I called the county clerk's office to ask whether I could bring her with me, I was told no.  So I was unable to serve.  Just out of curiosity, why can't election judges bring well-behaved dogs with them?

Here's an interesting article in the trib about pols and their cars.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-080123polscars-photogallery,0,3233522.photogallery

From the SJ-R:

The Blagojevich administration must release the subpoenas it has gotten from federal prosecutors who are investigating possible corruption, a judge has ruled.

The U.S. attorney in Chicago is looking into possible misconduct in the way Gov. Rod Blagojevich awards state jobs and contracts. He has issued subpoenas requiring the administration to turn over various documents.

Blagojevich has refused to show the subpoenas to reporters and government watchdog groups, so the Better Government Association sued.

Sangamon County Judge Patrick Kelley ruled Wednesday that the subpoenas must be released to the public.

But he stayed his order to let the governor appeal.

The BGA's suit is here: http://www.sj-r.com/extras/pdfs/010908govcomplaint.pdf

Today's Trib has an article "Global campus debut is a dud" at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-globalcampus04jan04,1,5676558.story 

University of Illinois officials expected that their Global Campus project would start small. But when online classes began Wednesday, there were fewer than 15 students enrolled, far lower than the 75 students predicted last year.

Officials attribute the low enrollment to having little time to market the project after a four-month delay in getting it approved by university trustees. U. of I. President B. Joseph White, who has predicted that online enrollment will eventually exceed the 70,000 students at the university's three traditional campuses combined, has banked his reputation on the project's success.

"It is important for people not to focus on the doggone numbers for these initial enrollments. The key is that it exists now. We can offer classes," said Chet Gardner, White's special assistant in charge of the project. "Now we have to give our marketing efforts time to get our enrollments up and become financially viable."

According to the Trib, two convicted political operatives said that Blago offered them state business for their political backing.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-rezkokellydec22,0,4629054.story

One allegation in the document describes a conversation between Blagojevich and longtime Democratic fundraiser Joseph Cari, who also has pleaded guilty as part of a conspiracy to seek millions of dollars in kickbacks from firms wanting work with the $30 billion state teacher pension fund.

Blagojevich asked Cari about his fundraising experience and told Cari he had "lots of ways of helping his friends," according to the filing.

"Public Official A also informed Cari that he could award contracts, legal work and investment banking to help with fundraising," the court filing stated.

The filing offers more details about the case against Rezko, once one of the governor's closest advisers and fundraisers. U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald has described the scheme as "payto- play politics on steroids."

There's an article in today's N-G about Lori Stewart winning a Homefront Hero award for her Toys for Troops work at http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2007/12/12/quinn_honors_groups_that_support

There's more information in her blog at http://gnightgirl.blogspot.com/   Congratulations to Lori!

Here's my group's digital library project.  My grandfather served in WWII and saved lots of things - letters, stamps, coins, bills, and photos.  It's still a work in progress, so it may be taken down for a little while this afternoon.  This contains scans of some v-mail, letters, stamps, coins, and images.

http://classrm02.lis.uiuc.edu:4080/cgi-bin/library?site=localhost&a=p&p=about&c=scantest3&l=en&w=utf-8

Some of the images of the German stamps are fascinating, but chilling.

Some people may have been following the whole debacle where the Glenn Poshard, the president of Southern Illinois University, was accused of plagiarism on his doctoral dissertation.  An SIU faculty committee agreed that there were some problems with Poshard's work, but decided that standards had been different back then, so Poshard should be allowed to just correct the errors.  There was quite a bit of disagreement with this conclusion, and the N-G even ran at least one editorial condemning the decision.

An emeritus faculty member read the entire dissertation and concluded that the general level of scholarship was very poor.  His column in the Daily Egyptian, "Victim of a Culture,"

http://media.www.siude.com/media/storage/paper1096/news/2007/11/09/Columns/Column.Victim.Of.A.Culture-3090013.shtml

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2007/11/07/few_surprises_in_filings_for_feb_

While taking the mandatory ethics training, I noticed a reference to a case that looked strangely familiar.  The screenshots are attached.  It looks a lot like the recent court case involving Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey.  However, there are some interesting discrepancies between the ethics test's description of the case and some of the things that emerged in the news media.  For example, there's a copy of a Trib article from earlier this year up on the IL Senate GOP site:

http://www.senategop.state.il.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=308&Itemid=123

Later, a judge ruled the the Civil Service Commission had mishandled the case and both DeFraties and Casey got their jobs back.  The Capital Fax blog had an interesting post on that.

http://thecapitolfaxblog.com/wp-mobile.php?p=4104&more=1